Intentions to Marry, 1895 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840408, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025

1895 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 124

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 September 1895

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
15	15 July 1895	Francis William Solomon Margaret King Crosby	Francis William Falconer Margaret Penny 💍 1895/1824	Bachelor Spinster	Manager	22 22	Manaia Eltham	12 months 12 years	at John Henry	95/3013	15 July 1895	Rev. M. McDonald, Presbyterian
16	20 July 1895	Denis O'Mahony Kate Leahy	Denis OMahony Kate Leahy 💍 1895/1537	Widower Widow	Farmer	42 30	Stratford Stratford	12 months 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church at Stratford	95/2908	20 July 1895	Rev. Fr. McKenna, Roman Catholic
17	22 July 1895	Frank Whiting Maggie Wise	Frank Whiting Maggie Wise 💍 1895/3851	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Hawera Stratford	14 years 1 month	Residence of Frank Johnson, Hawera	95/2345	22 July 1895	Rev. Alex English, Church of England
18	1 August 1895	Herbert Henry Johnston Louisa Nuttall	Herbert Henry Johnston Louisa Nuttall 💍 1895/1057	Bachelor Spinster	Stables	28 22	Tariki Stratford	6 months 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church at Stratford	95/2342	1 August 1895	Rev. H. Bellhouse, Wesleyan
19	1 August 1895	John Main Emily Butler	John Moir Emily Butler 💍 1895/1039	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	28 21	Eltham Eltham	9 years 11 years	Residence of Mr. J. W. Hayward, Eltham	95/2344	1 August 1895	Rev. J. W. Hayward, Primitive Methodist
20	23 August 1895	John Fraser Wilhelmina Dingwall Brown	John Fraser Wilhelmina Dingwall Brown 💍 1895/1056	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 27	Stratford Ngaire	3 years 12 years	Residence of Mr. B. Hutson, Ngaire	95/2341	23 August 1895	Rev. B. Hutson, Presbyterian
21	5 September 1895	Edmund George Jones Mary Robertson	Edmund George Jones Mary Robertson 💍 1895/1038	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 24	Eltham Eltham	2 years 12 months	Residence of Mr. H. Bellhouse, Eltham	95/2343	5 September 1895	Rev. H. Bellhouse, Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).